We have booked a reservation on Vuling BRU-AGP-BRU in 3 weeks.

The first segment was canceled and we are suggested a rebooking to a flight leaving about 6 hours earlier, but that is a transfer flight via Barcelona. We cannot take that flight, as it's leaving too early.
The return segment wasn't canceled, but retimed, also leaving approx. 5 hours earlier than scheduled. We could theoretically take that flight, but it's not really convenient.


For the first segment, there is a direct flight on Ryanair, leaving 30 mins later than the initially scheduled Vueling flight. However, Vueling says they cannot book us on that flight, only refund the ticket. The Ryanair flight, so close to the departure is a lot more expensive than the refund we are getting from Vueling. After speaking to the thrid agent at Vueling, he confirmed they would refundn the fare difference in that case. However, he said he "didn't have the time, to confirm that in email". Apart from the appaling customer service, I'm experiencing. - I was wondering what the actual obligations of the airline are in both cases.

I understand, we cannot claim compensation for the inconvenience of the cancelation, but I was under the impression that it's Vueling's obligation to propose a flight at similar transport conditions, which would include a flight on a different airline. The several customer agents said that this was "by definition" excluded, because they can never accommodate on a different airline ... "It' impossible, I'm telling you", the guy yelled at me.